With St. Patrick's Day — March 17 — around the corner, traditional U.S. menus (corned beef and cabbage) can be tweaked with some delightfully named Irish foods like boxty, champ or colcannon.

In Ireland, St. Patrick's Day is a religious day, celebrating the teachings of Christianity by St. Patrick — Ireland's patron saint. To the Irish, "the wearing of the green" usually refers to a sprig of shamrock (three-leaf clover variety) worn on a lapel or hat. According to legend, the three leaves serve as a metaphor for the Trinity — that God exists as three divine persons, the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. Pubs in Ireland were shut on St Patrick's Day until the late 1970s, when Irish laws were changed, allowing them to open their doors on the holiday. After Mass, many male parishioners hurried to the nearest pub for some "St. Patrick's Pot." They dropped their shamrock sprigs into the final glass of the day; drinking up, the sprig was removed and tossed over the left shoulder while toasts for good health were exchanged.

In this country, St. Patrick's Day is often "party day" — a good excuse for eating, drinking lots of beer and enjoying festivities/parades in various cities. Green is the color of the day: People wear something green, bartenders may sell "green" beer. (Even the Chicago River, cutting through downtown Chicago, is dyed green for the holiday!)

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Some of the best Irish dishes, however, are not green. Many are potato-based, and the spud shows up in soups, sides and main courses. Potatoes, native to South America, arrived in Ireland in the 16th century. Until then, standard Irish cooking was based on cereals and dairy products. Potatoes were well suited to the few cooking utensils available in Irish homes — a cauldron (large, heavy metal pot for cooking over an open fire) and a griddle. Alan Davidson, the late English food historian, noted that in coastal regions, it was common to boil potatoes in a cauldron of sea water; this prevented the skin from cracking and prevented mineral loss. At the end of the 18th century, before the potato blight and Great Famine, poor Irish families ate a daily average of 10 potatoes per person!

Unusual, mysterious names for Irish food — dating back to the Middle Ages — are often accompanied by a saying or verse. These names persist today, though the recipes may have undergone variations. An example is boxty, an Irish potato bread. This could be prepared in pancake or dumpling form. Referring to a girl's prospects for marriage, the verse is blunt: "Boxty in the griddle, boxty in the pan, if you can't make boxty, you'll never get a man." Made with a mixture of mashed potatoes and grated raw potato, it often replaced bread at lunchtime or supper. It's also known as dippity and another richer version — adding cream, sugar and caraway seeds — is called stampy bread.

Champ, another Irish potato dish, has nothing to do with champions. Made with mashed potatoes, chopped green onions, butter and milk, it's often served in individual bowls with a well in the middle filled with melted butter. Some cooks serve a soft-boiled egg in the center well.

Kids chant the rhyme: "There was an old woman who lived in a lamp; she had no room to beetle her champ." (Beetle is a pestle — used to mash potatoes.) Champ is also used in Irish slang; "he's thick as champ"is derogatory, implying the person is not too swift!

Colcannon, is similar to champ but instead of green onions is made with shredded cooked kale or cabbage, chopped leeks and cream or milk — mixed with mashed potatoes.

Chef Cathal Armstrong, who grew up in Dublin, writes that after St. Patrick's Day Mass, his family went home to an elegant meal that often featured roast leg of lamb. (Courtesy of Scott Suchman)

A new cookbook, "My Irish Table" by Cathal Armstrong (Ten Speed Press), pays homage to modern Irish cuisine. Armstrong, an internationally known chef and restaurateur in the Washington, D.C. area, serves up 130 recipes, combining the simple, Irish family food of his childhood (he grew up in Dublin) with classic French cooking techniques.

Potatoes rate their own chapter, which includes boiled, mashed, baked, roasted goodies along with French-style variations (lyonnaise and gratin). Armstrong writes that back in Ireland, St. Patrick's Day usually fell in the middle of Lent, and families were given special dispensation from the Church to break their fast on that day. After Mass, the family went home to an elegant meal that often featured roast leg of lamb.

He writes that corned beef and cabbage or green beer were never part of his family's holiday meal.

Looking for green? Try veggies.

Armstrong's recipe for Brussels sprouts with bacon may tempt some non-sprouts eaters: they're cooked with diced bacon, onions and finished in chicken stock and thyme leaves.

Irish soda bread could be called a national dish of Ireland. The soda refers to sodium bicarbonate (baking soda) used for leavening instead of the more expensive yeast.

Buttermilk in the dough reacts with the soda resulting in the cake-like texture. A cookbook with Irish recipes usually includes a recipe for this quick bread — with or without added dried fruit and sugar. Armstrong's book includes a recipe for a one-pound loaf. I cut this in half, added dried fruit, a dash of sugar and used the dough for some tasty breakfast muffins.

2. Mix flour, soda, salt, sugar in large bowl. Add butter and cut in with pastry cutter until dough resembles coarse meal. Make a well in center of bowl and pour in the buttermilk. Mix until flour mixture is just incorporated. Don't overmix.

3. Lightly stir in dried fruit. Drop batter in muffin cups — slightly more than half full. Bake about 40 minutes — until browned on top and tester comes out clean. Let muffins rest a few muffins before serving.